“It catches my heart in its hands,” by underground poet Charles Bukowski, handmade by Loujon Press in 1963 and signed by the author. Each page of the book features handset type

“On the Slates,” by Clark Coolidge, is written on 31 loose leaf pages that are then wrapped in a dollar and tucked into a shoe

From the Victor E. Reichert Robert Frost Collection: “Collected Poems of Robert Frost,” signed by the author

Poet Larry Eigner’s only typewriter, which he used to create spatial relationships on the page as part of his compositional practice

From the Poetry Collection’s substantial collection of zines, or “fanzines.” Typically homemade (using a photocopier and staples), zines tend to be highly personal and idiosyncratic

From the James Joyce archive: a broadside of “Gas from a Burner” (1912), a first edition of “Ulysses” from 1922 and two of Joyce’s canes

A hand-drawn poster for the Institute for Further Studies, whose freewheeling curriculum in the 1960s was inspired by the poet Charles Olson

The knapsack carried by Robert Graves when he served as a captain in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers during World War I

A portrait of James Joyce’s paternal great-grandfather—allegedly. More likely, says curator Michael Basinski, this and other purported family portraits were purchased by Joyce’s father in an effort to gentrify the family

“The Grid Project” (2003), an example of interactive and improvisational poetry published by ELEVATOR, an artist’s book poetry press based in Buffalo

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“Everything here has a back story,” says Michael
Basinski, curator of the UB Poetry Collection,
before launching into a whirlwind tour—back stories and
all—of one of the world’s leading collections of 20th-
and 21st-century poetry in English. One minute he’s pointing
out the coffee stains on a handwritten copy of Dylan Thomas’s
“Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night”; the next,
sweeping his hand over a set of paintings purported to be of James
Joyce’s relatives (and carried by the Joyce family throughout
Europe), but quite possibly, says Basinski, “purchased by
Joyce’s father at a used furniture store in an attempt to
gentrify the family.”

The Poetry Collection, now in its 76th year, defies most
people’s idea of poetry, and that is in part what makes it so
endlessly fascinating. In addition to a world-class collection of
first editions, and scores of archives and original manuscripts
(including the world’s largest James Joyce archive), there are avant-garde
zines, little literary magazines, manifestos from the early days of
Punk, collections of visual and concrete poetry, an eccentric
collection of “mail art” by the likes of an organic
chemist from West Virginia named Ficus Strangulenis, letters,
photographs, artwork, even a sketch of the poet Robert Duncan by
Robert De Niro’s mother.

In other words, nothing is too far afield for Basinski, the
collection’s eighth curator. In this, he follows in the
footsteps of his seven predecessors and Charles
Abbott, who founded the collection in 1937. Director of the
university libraries from 1934 to 1960, Abbott was unlike most
literary scholars at that time, in that he placed tremendous value
on the work of living poets and cultivated a wide personal network.
“Poets came to his home and he became friends with
them,” says Basinski. “Then he harvested manuscripts
from them and we now use them as calling cards.” Abbott also
directed Mary Barnard, the collection’s first curator,
“to write to poets and ask for, quite literally, the contents
of their wastepaper baskets. At that point, contemporary poets were
throwing their stuff away.”

Charles Abbott was married to Theresa Gratwick, whose family
owned a 240-acre farm in Pavilion, N.Y., about 50 miles east of
Buffalo. Theresa’s parents gave the caretaker’s house
to Charles and Theresa, and this is where the couple entertained
poets over the years, including everyone from William Carlos
Williams to W.H. Auden. The third floor of the house served as
Charles’ private office, and according to Basinski (who is
now writing a book about Abbott), he was quite a collector of books
in his own right.

So when Basinski learned from a friend that the house was slated
for demolition, he made a visit to Pavilion to rescue what he could
[see video at right]. “The dust was measurable, probably a
quarter-inch, and the roof had rotted out,” he recalls.
“Some rooms were already sealed. There were bats living in
the house. It was quite decrepit.” Then he adds, with a
characteristic glint, “But full of book treasure!”

Video: Rescuing Book Treasure from the Abbott Home

In Demand Around the World

The Poetry Collection frequently lends its literary treasures to
museums worldwide. "We're not only a research library but a poetry
museum," says curator Michael Basinski. Below is a partial listing
of museums and galleries that have shown Poetry Collection holdings
in recent years:

Britain's National Portrait Gallery

The Tate Britain

The National Library of Wales

The National Library of Ireland

The Guggenheim Museum in New York

The Guggenheim Museum in Venice

The Crocker Art Museum in California

24 ORE Cultura in Milan

Museum Ludwig in Köln, Germany

Poetry and Me

“It all began a long time ago when I oddly came upon
‘Love’s Philosophy’ by Percy Shelley: ‘The
fountains mingle with the river.’ My imagination was
christened and I committed to poetry. This was really not the
easiest thing to do in working-class Cheektowaga. I read about
Beatniks and Jack Kerouac in Mad Magazine. I ate plain yogurt and,
whenever possible, drank espresso. There were few poets in the
neighborhood and a lot of folks who knew how to change spark plugs.
I persevered.

“At some point, I thought I should head off to college to
study poetry. I worked the line at Buffalo China during the day and
became a Millard Fillmore College student by night. The first class
I walked into was Jack Clarke’s Modern Poetry. It was one of
those ‘never look back’ moments. When I first appeared
in the UB Poetry Collection as a disheveled graduate student
looking for campus work, I was able to quote Charles Olson:
‘I have had to learn the simplest things last. Which made for
difficulties.’

“I got the job. I never left. It’s a lifestyle! I
still don’t know how to change a spark plug.”

Basinski received his PhD from UB in 1995 and was named the
Poetry Collection’s eighth curator in 2004. In 2011, he
received the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in
Professional Service.

“There were few poets in the neighborhood and a lot of folks who knew how to change spark plugs.”